Tag Archives: Pasadena Police

PASADENA, CA – The Pasadena Police Department will conduct a DUI Checkpoint enforcement program on Friday, December 10th , 2010. The hours of operation will be between 7:00 pm – 3:00 am. DUI programs are a useful and effective tool for achieving the Pasadena Police Department’s goal of detecting and removing impaired drivers from our streets.

The Pasadena Police Department is committed to making the roadways safe for the driving public during the holiday season. Members from the Pasadena Police Department’s Traffic Section will be conducting this program for the purpose of looking for and arresting impaired/intoxicated drivers.

“Our objective is to send a clear message to those who are considering driving a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol and/or drugs,” Pasadena police spokewoman Janet Pope Givens said. “The public is encouraged to help keep our roadways safe and to ‘Report Impaired Drivers by calling 911’ whenever you see a suspected impaired driver.”

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The additional arrests were the result of “some witness statements and a review of “the video on YouTube,” Ibarra said.

Authorities on Monday charged two men arrested in connection the drunken brawl both were charged with resisting an officer and other counts, officials said.

Joshua Elder, 24, of Temple City and Steven Michael Radu, 27, of Monrovia were scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Pasadena Superior Court, but officials said the arraignment might be delayed until today.

Arturo Cisneros, 44, of Northridge, and the father of Arthur, Anthony and Akira Cisneros was arrested Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder. Ibarra said detectives have until this afternoon to present a case to the District Attorney’s office.

“(Arturo Cisneros) was arrested for his involvement in the stabbing,” Ibarra said.
Cal State Fullerton student Joshua Dirling, 27, was stabbed in the cheek. Vimal Patel, 24, was stabbed in the back, according to reports.

Witnesses said the incident erupted between two groups of tailgaters when a football was tossed and accidentally hit a car.

Anytime the Pasadena Police Department contacts the media, its usually because they want something. Today it’s because they want to show off some of the loot they’ve recovered from four men arrested in connection with a string of burglaries. Here’s the budget note from our line-up:

Cops will hold a 3 p.m. news conference to announce they’ve linked four suspects arrested in an attempted burglary last week to numerous others in and around the city.

PUSD believes it got shortchanged by contractors doing work on their last big bond measure.

The district turned the results of its investigation over to Pasadena PD, which turned its investigation over to the DA’s office, where the case was promptly rejected.

The official reason for the rejection was the tangle of convoluted paperwork associated with the claim. Nate McIntire and Caroline An got the same paperwork, and agree it’s a barely dechiperable mess.

In any case, PUSD thinks it can get the DA’s office to reopen the case. Here’s a snippet of their story, which ran in the Star-News today:

PASADENA – School district officials called on the District Attorney’s Office on Monday to reopen an investigation into potential fraud related to school improvement projects.

In an afternoon press conference, Superintendent Edwin Diaz released documents that show two contractors improperly billed the Pasadena Unified School District almost $300,000.

“We’re hoping that at least one of these individuals will be charged,” Diaz said and added he is urging the school board to begin civil action against the individuals.

District officials also released hundreds of pages of documents they claim support their allegations. The documents included invoices for work never performed and records of payments made to an unlicensed contractor working under the supervision of a district employee.

Officials also released transcripts of conversations with an unlicensed contractor in which the contractor confessed to paying kickbacks to the supervisor.

The documents were given to investigators in March.

In May, prosecutors declined to file any charges after citing poor record keeping and faulty project oversight by the district.

Sandy Gibbons, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, said Monday her office had not received Diaz’s letter requesting it revisit the case.

The death of retired Pasadena Police Lt. David Richter has highlighted the need for responsible journalism in a time when tabloid reporting and the sentiments of bloggers are confused with news.

Richter’s abandoned car was found
by a water-filled pit in Irwindale last January. Police assumed the
retired lieutenant had either taken his own life or simply walked
away from his financial troubles.

The later discovery of
Richter’s corpse and a firearm under a nearby overpass seems to corroborate the theory that Richter took his own life. But then there’s the
conspiracy theorists, and admittedly the case possesses all the
potential of a Law and Order episode.

Thursday, I read an
article by Andre Coleman of the Pasadena
Weekly. Buried on page 13, the article uses an unnamed source and
anonymous letter to create speculation amongst readers. After a short
recap of the facts, Coleman delves into a lengthy digress about an
anonymous letter sent to members of the Pasadena City Council. The letter
alleges everything from police malfeasance to racism.

Coleman’s
sublimation of this anonymous letter leads to another anonymous
source:

“According to an earlier
conversation with one coroner’s office employee who did not wish to
be named, among the factors that may have led authorities to reopen
the case (the case was
never closed)was that a gun found near Richter’s body
appeared to have been fired four times, and one bullet remained in
the weapon.”

Keeping in mind that they are a tabloid, I find it alarming
that the Pasadena Weekly published this story. Had someone in the coroner’s office made the statement, a statement that Los Angeles County Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter doubts the legitimacy of, I would have written it off as conjecture, rather
than present it as news. How would someone in the coroner’s office
know this information? According to Winter, homicide detectives would
have taken the weapon and run ballistics on it, not the coroners
office. While the article spends ample time on anonymous sources, it
fails to mention Richter’s financial possible motives for Richter to commit suicide.

Friday I spoke with
a psychic who claims the spirit of David Richter awakens her every
morning seeking justice for his murder.

Monday morning I
listened to a voice-mail from an anonymous caller who presented
himself as law enforcement by using the word “we” often in
his rant. I listened to the message several times in an ill-fated
attempt to extract meaningful insight.

“You’ll never find out what
happened, because that’s what happens to us good cops when we make
promises we can’t keep.”

After racking my
brain for three days I had an epiphany: there probably isn’t any
credible information indicating Richter’s death was anything but a
suicide.

Let’s face it,
Richter was a retired cop and retired cops kill themselves. By the
age of 55 Richter had spent his entire adult life in law enforcement, and didn’t have a spouse or children.

Police who survive
years of service, only to take their own lives after retirement is not a new concept. My own grandfather retired after 30 years as a
Philadelphia homicide detective, and spent the next ten years
drinking himself to death.

Sure, it’s possible that
Richter caught a bullet during an old-west-style shootout
with a crooked cop. However, it’s far more likely that
Richter was lamenting his career, his impending financial doom, and a Christmas without not only kin but comrade, last holiday season when he died.

Regardless of what
happened to Richter, it’s important that journalists remember their
role: to report the news not create it. That’s why I take it as a
compliment when bloggers like Aaron Proctor recognize me with a “ham
and egger” award for “stealing” a story. So long as
the Associated Press continues to recognize the difference between
news coverage and misleading narratives, there just might be hope
for the media and the role it should play in our society.

Comments Policy

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.